Ebola and Economic Development: Weak Health Systems Will Slow Growth

Recent weeks have seen a lot of U.S. news outlets focusing on Africa. At the beginning of the month, the White House, along with a number of major U.S. corporations and corporately oriented philanthropic organizations just hosted a forum with 45 African Heads of State that was meant to discuss and spur US interest in economic investment in Africa. At the same time, there is growing concern about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, increased by the decision to bring two Americans back to the U.S. to receive treatment.

Here at GHETS, we cannot help but think about how these two news items are so highly related. On the one hand, we have leaders coming together to discuss African economic development and on the other we have a looming health crisis that is, among other things, indicative of and caused by the underlying structural issues that exist in underdeveloped health systems. President Obama’s remarks and many of the discussions that were happening at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum were encouraging in some ways, yet the overarching narrative of the forum was lacking a key component that the Ebola crisis is simultaneously reminding us of: underdeveloped health systems lead to unmanageable crises.

What this comes down to is that health systems strengthening and economic development are not discrete agendas, approaches, and programs. They aren’t even two sides of the same coin. They are simply the same thing. Down to the simplest level, the less people get sick, the more able they are to hold a job, receive the education they need, and make their own opportunities for living a healthy and fulfilling life. To quote a Ugandan partner of ours, Pastor Luswata, who currently has a project up on our brand new crowdfunding project SeedGrants.org:

“Many children miss school because of [preventable] diseases, which cause them to fall behind in their studies and put them at further risk of not completing their education.”

There is no question that education and economic opportunity are integral to one another. As Pastor Luswata sees every day, preventable disease and a lack of education go hand in hand. Economic development is an integral part of health and healthy living just as health and healthy living are essential to any economic development.

As the U.S. joins the already eager businesses and government leaders from Europe, China, Brazil and other places who are looking to Africa as the next major emerging market, it is important that we also recognize how the developmental issues that are so closely associated with so many African nations are inseparably intersectional in nature.

In his closing remarks at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum, President Barack Obama promised that the the U.S. won’t “look to Africa simply for its natural resources; we recognize Africa for its greatest resource, which is its people and its talents and their potential.” That potential cannot be realized without a health system that can provide quality and reliable care that people need to thrive.